110: Stealin' Lincoln, with Eyebrows McGee

November 2, 2015 12:21 PM

It's a short podcast! By our standards, which is to say only an hour and twenty minutes or so. Jessamyn and I are joined by the midwest's own Eyebrows McGee as we chatter semi-hurriedly about a bunch of stuff from Metafilter and also Abe Lincoln's corpse. We cover October 8th-ish through November 2.

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Misc
- birthday song of the lonely Rover
- Lin-Manuel Miranda's childhood book report
- and rapping on The Electric Company
- seriously ColdChef enough already with the Hamilton stuff, your family is worried about you
- jessamyn recently read Stealing Lincoln's Body
- also here's that wonderful/terrifying Pekinese costume again
- lot of lists of kinds of dead people on Wikipedia
- the noble mangelwurzel

Jobs
- Freelance VFX artist for budget scifi flick
- it's too late to help someone move

Projects
- The Astronaut Instruction Manual by Mike Mongo (MeFi thread)
- The Toast redesign by verb
- It's Autumn on Arrakis by womprat78 (MeFi thread)
- Scoring Lyrical Clichés with N-Grams by thetruthisjustalie
- Carbon Costume by thomaspark
- @Everyword: the book by aparrish

MetaFilter
- CAPS LOCK DAY 2015
- Googler who lives in a van in the parking lot
- jessamyn dealing out some library knowledge
- running backwards in reverse
- playing metal on the banjo
- everything you never knew about tap dancing
- No one tweets like Bot-ston
- Can Men Have It All?
- Halloween with a toddler
- why are glasses so damn expensive
- locally-sourced hand-crafted artisinal password sales

Ask MeFi
- What happens if a player dies on the sports field?
- Who's the X's X's X?
- Surprising everyday details from the past (and bonus MeTa shoutout)
- Choral cultural appropriation
- strategies for going on the run
- two months in a row: camper hacks

FanFare
We're starting to experiment with Books! And book clubs:
- Historical Fiction Book Club
- Random Fiction Book Club
- Apocalypse Fiction Club
- Dune Club
Also, folks talking about lots of TV and stuff, e.g. Walking Dead

MetaTalk
- about that books stuff
- learning to ask the Ask inside of you

Music
Songs used for interstitials this month:
- Treasure by Josh Rogan
- Body Break by ageispolis
- Just Won't Do by remlapm

posted by cortex (staff) to MeFi Podcast at 12:21 PM (47 comments total)

I'm pretty sure I said "Lin-MANual Miranda" at some point during the podcast so I'm just getting out ahead of that right now to clarify it's not a draygun sort of thing, it was just kind of early in the morning for this in general.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:23 PM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

OH JOY Eyebrows is one of the people I've most been hoping would appear on the podcast!
posted by barchan at 12:25 PM on November 2, 2015

- seriously ColdChef enough already with the Hamilton stuff, your family is worried about you

LIES
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:39 PM on November 2, 2015 [5 favorites]

- seriously ColdChef enough already with the Hamilton stuff, your family is worried about you

LIES

This is just one cult member explaining to everyone else that their other cult member friend isn't in a cult.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 12:44 PM on November 2, 2015 [4 favorites]

Oooh, awesome.
posted by rtha at 12:47 PM on November 2, 2015

Plush Mars rover, btw.

I had lots of fun! Although, gawd, listening to my own accent/voice ...
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:52 PM on November 2, 2015 [3 favorites]

Yaybrows McGee!
posted by ChuraChura at 12:54 PM on November 2, 2015

TO THE SPACESHIP, GJ
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:54 PM on November 2, 2015 [3 favorites]

While I'm enjoying the guest stars (and I especially liked the surreality of Glables' co-hosting stint) it's bringing up some childhood trauma. Is Daddy Matt not coming back?
posted by billiebee at 1:11 PM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Matt's been so dang busy working an actual job at Slack that it was kind of pulling teeth to get podcasts scheduled the last couple times he was on; I have no idea if/when/how things will change on that front, and don't want to force him to cram on MeFi just for podcast chatter in any case, so practically speaking I'm just aiming to keep getting guest mefites on and we'll see what the future brings as it unfurls.

If nothing else I'm sure we'll occasionally have Special Guest Matthew Haughey on.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:13 PM on November 2, 2015 [3 favorites]

I had lots of fun! Although, gawd, listening to my own accent/voice ...

I think your voice is good! But yeah, that is rough. I didn't get through listening to mine.
posted by ignignokt at 1:24 PM on November 2, 2015

I had lots of fun! Although, gawd, listening to my own accent/voice...

I think your voice is good! But yeah, that is rough. I didn't get through listening to mine.

Someone should post a project that text-to-speeches everyone who has appeared on the podcast. It'll be janky but wonderful.
posted by Going To Maine at 1:44 PM on November 2, 2015

Oh, YAY! Eyebrows! Looking forward to hearing this one.

Love, love, love the guest mefites on the podcast idea. :)
posted by zarq at 3:12 PM on November 2, 2015 [3 favorites]

I regret nothing. Unfollow me at your peril.
posted by ColdChef at 5:01 PM on November 2, 2015 [9 favorites]

BTW, when Eyebrows says she teaches me about football, she is NOT KIDDING. Two years ago I knew an almost impossibly tiny amount about football, like "there are four downs, I don't know what a down is tho" and "A touchdown is worth six points but then sometimes seven" and now I am up to the point where I can intelligently discuss the game with the cashier in the grocery store and read sports commentary without feeling like I'm trying to debug code written in a language I don't know.

If you need to know a thing about sports and you currently know NOTHING about sports, she is the one to call!
posted by KathrynT at 5:16 PM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Peril?!
That would be akin to trying to find Abe's remains for like science only to find the guide say: "He's there but not there" under ten Feet of concrete and re-bar, multiple coffins, leaded and hexing and vexing only to find its a crime to...
posted by clavdivs at 7:02 PM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]

I am not actually super-knowledgable about sports but I edited a newspaper with a sports page for long enough to get at least two seasons of all major sports under my belt, and to closely read hundreds of football stories, some 5,000 words long. "Uh, Sportswriter, I have literally no idea what any of this means, explain it to me in human words and not sports cliches." "Okay, guy, you have to tell me WHY the rules change matters, and not just assume I already know because I do NOT ..." I also read 8,000 word stories on fencing (interesting!) and 2500 word stories on golf (dire) and you name a sport, I have edited an article about it.

I often got final edit on the sports section because I wasn't super sports literate so it was easier for me to catch the lazy writing that relied on cliches rather than actually saying what happened. The other editors, as much bigger sports fans, were more likely to accidentally skip over the holes because they also knew how to fill them in. Anyway, its a pretty good way to learn a lot about the Platonic Ideal of a Sport. I am hazy on a lot of the soap opera elements and character arcs of specific teams and players, but I understand the underlying systems at work. (Sometimes I can tell you why a particular play is preferred and what the strategy is, but I actually have no idea what the play looks like -- particularly in hockey -- because I read LOTS of news stories but never saw a game until recently.)

It did make me a better casual sports fan ... I can sit down and enjoy watching almost any sport because I have a basic understanding of what going on and why people are excited, which is nice, as I am not sporty myself, and it gives me access to a whole realm of culture I didn't have before. But I'm not the sort of fan who can keep lineups straight and I feel justified in selecting what team to hate based on the stupidity of their mascot. (Except when it comes to the Cubs, but that's not sports, its family religion.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:21 PM on November 2, 2015 [6 favorites]

The one thing that really made me miss Matt was realizing that we spent absolutely no time at the beginning of this podcast complaining about Skype. Thank you so much Eyebrows McGee for hanging out and talking with us this morning.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 8:38 PM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]

This is the first podcast I've managed to listen to, because while I can see the posts in my RSS feed (commafeed.com), I've never seen any links to the actual podcast. Lots of other links to MF stuff, but not the podcast itself. I figured I was just too dumb to figure it out, or that the podcast link was some kind of elite insider thing. I see these posts and sigh wistfully and wander off to do other things.

Anyways, the "Helpful Links" section seems to disappear in RSS, which is probably not what you intended when you set out to be helpful. Thought you should know.

(And yeah, my motivation was to listen to EMcG.)
posted by sidereal at 3:24 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Eyebrows McGee is 25-karat awesome. Good choice as the special guest star on this week's episode!

--
And if Maximum Leader Hooey isn't coming back to the podcast for a while, can you get the two vital audio samples -- "Whaaaa?!" and *guffaw* -- and just splice those in every so often?

WHAT HO, MODS!
posted by wenestvedt at 6:06 AM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

I heartily endorse wenestvedt's suggestion.
posted by Wretch729 at 6:33 AM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

Also this podcast was great. I've been loving the guest podcasts.
posted by Wretch729 at 6:45 AM on November 3, 2015

Anyways, the "Helpful Links" section seems to disappear in RSS, which is probably not what you intended when you set out to be helpful. Thought you should know.

Oh ho! That is good to know, actually. And makes a little sense on the technical end, because it's actually that the Helpful Links section *magically appears* in the post for podcast-type metatalks. I agree it makes more sense to have those bits show up, we'll just have to actually tweak how the RSS is generated a little bit.

can you get the two vital audio samples

Oh man, a mathowie soundboard.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:31 AM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

Oh man, a mathowie soundboard.

Those clowns on Reddit did it again. What a bunch of clowns.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 7:56 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oh man, a mathowie soundboard.

Surely it would look something like this..
posted by marienbad at 8:11 AM on November 3, 2015

Oh man, a mathowie soundboard.

What, you push a button and it posts the reason it deleted your comment?
posted by eriko at 8:16 AM on November 3, 2015

I liked jessamyn hating on the unspecialness of the number 110, but I LOVED jessamyn hating on Twitter Moments.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:24 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Wow, two out of three podcast hosts are connected to Naperville! Which, I didn't like when I was a kid, but now when I hear about it, I'm like, hey, it's familiar! Flyover country fistbump!
posted by ignignokt at 10:51 AM on November 3, 2015

Rule 110 is actually really cool.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 11:36 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

also here's that wonderful/terrifying Pekinese costume again

I'm late to the party on this one, but looking at that picture, I'm conflicted on whether it's like a still from a found-footage horror movie, or someone who needs a hug.
posted by SpacemanStix at 8:35 PM on November 3, 2015

If nothing else I'm sure we'll occasionally have Special Guest Matthew Haughey on.

I'd be super interested in hearing how his new job is going, if he felt inclined to share.
posted by SpacemanStix at 8:37 PM on November 3, 2015

So now I feel like I need to offer to help Jessamyn figure out actual fursuits and not just mascot costumes. (Yes, there are strategies to keeping cool in suits, that range from fans in the heads to vests filled with blue ice icepacks to circulating cooling systems.)
posted by hippybear at 12:34 AM on November 4, 2015

Maybe do a not-in-real-time quickie interview with mathowie to splice into the next podcast? I'm also interested in hearing how his life is going these days. I miss his presence in the podcast, but also am loving the new format.
posted by hippybear at 3:17 AM on November 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

cortex: Oh man, a mathowie soundboard.

Forget that, how about "Oh man, a mathowie Endless Jingling/Jingle Rock Bell board"!!
posted by wenestvedt at 5:51 AM on November 4, 2015

now I feel like I need to offer to help Jessamyn figure out actual fursuits and not just mascot costumes.

That is next up. This costume was a gift and I love it. That said I would love to have a fur costume that I could actually sort of wear around more easily (smaller head that I could see out of, more lightweight). When I wore a Stinky Cheese Man costume for a book fest once, there was actually a fan in the head which was pretty cool. Baby steps.

And yes, a little call-in from Matt to hear how he's doing would be great.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 6:32 AM on November 4, 2015

Awww man Jessamyn you just triggered such a memory in my brain. I was obsessed with the Stinky Cheese Man book when I was in grade school, to the point of having memorized most of it. Some of that is still rattling around in my head but I hadn't thought of it in ages. Good times.
posted by Wretch729 at 7:10 AM on November 4, 2015

I endorse shorter podcasts! It's great listening to my favorite mods and ex-mods each month, but the 2+ hour recording was making it difficult to do in a timely way.
posted by adrianhon at 2:50 PM on November 4, 2015

For the record, I am on ColdChef's side in the great war.

I would rather be divisive than indecisive.
posted by DigDoug at 4:17 PM on November 4, 2015 [3 favorites]

“I just burned a swath through Peter Watts last four books.”

I’m not sure I could cope with that: I’d need fluffy kittens in between or something at least.
posted by pharm at 2:39 AM on November 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

It was only the last one that had the several chapter rape/torture thing of the likable character. Up til then it was just normal dystopic end of the world stuff (But yeah I've switched to Archer Mayor...)
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 1:49 PM on November 5, 2015

More guests, more Matt, more everything.
posted by Chrysostom at 2:49 PM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

A) Matt works for Slack? I've got a giphy integration nitpick for him, mister!
2) I'm available for guest spotting on the podcast.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 8:37 PM on November 12, 2015

I'm enjoying the guests. It's nice to have some voices to names. When you see the output of people of Metafilter, you only see a relatively narrow slice of who that person is or is presenting themselves to be. This definitely gives a more humanizing view of admittedly a tiny portion of MeFi.

I would probably get along really well with Eyebrows McGee. Except for rutabaga. My dad's family had rutabaga as a staple food and he and his siblings positively enjoy it. My family HAD to have rutabaga twice a year: at Thanksgiving and Christmas. My mom dutifully cooked it, stinking up the kitchen, and my dad was the only one who ate it. Me and my brothers would taste it and my gagging noises. It's nasty. It's no wonder it stinks - it's giving off mustard gas. Rutabaga is in the brassica family. I hosted Thanksgiving dinner last year with my dad and one of my brothers in attendance. It was mandated that we should have rutabaga and I decided that I was going to try to make it palatable. I made this gratin and it was absolutely delicious. Then again, according to my brother "you could've cooked a shoe this way and it would've tasted good."

Root vegetables as a kid - not so much. As an adult, I enjoy radishes (especially french breakfast), carrots (cooked only), sweet potatoes (jessamyn, try this some time), hakurei, and beets (they're great roasted, then cooled and sliced with balsamic vinegar and crumbled gorgonzola).

And sorry cortex, although I sometimes enjoy hearing jessamyn's exasperated gasps when you're grasping at a pun¹ (I was a little brother, finding the fine line of irritating your siblings and stopping before they pound the crap out of you is an art), things move along better with fewer of them. I appreciate your restraint.

¹I was considering qualifying it as 'bad pun', but decided that was redundant.
posted by plinth at 5:17 AM on November 21, 2015

Another good podcast, I enjoy the shorter format!

For the record, I know it's kind of ambiguous and sometimes I get confused about it myself, but my pronoun is 'she' and I'm a woman. No biggie!
posted by latkes at 8:42 AM on November 22, 2015

Whoops, sorry about that!
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:45 AM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

“Gender: Seahorse” is probably going to make selecting the right pronoun a tad tricky latkes :)
posted by pharm at 9:11 AM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Um people I just saw my book got talked about on Metafilter podcast (!!!!) and this is my face right now.

Not kidding for reals. I'm level-up gobsmacked.
posted by Mike Mongo at 7:04 PM on November 26, 2015 [2 favorites]